RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)

  • China: Regime blocks Meta’s $2 billion takeover of AI startup Manus

    Source: CNBC

    “China’s state planner on Monday called for Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of Manus, a Singaporean artificial intelligence startup with Chinese roots. The decision to prohibit foreign investment in Manus was made in accordance with laws and regulations, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a brief statement. It added that it has asked the parties involved to withdraw the acquisition transaction. … The deal had attracted scrutiny from both China and Washington, as lawmakers in the U.S. have prohibited American investors from backing Chinese AI companies directly. Meanwhile, Beijing has increased efforts to discourage Chinese AI founders from moving business offshore.” (04/27/26)

    https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/27/meta-manus-china-blocks-acquisition-ai-startup.html

  • CA: Idiotic Tax Proposal Allegedly Gets Enough Signatures for Ballot

    Source: Forbes

    “Organizers of a proposal to impose a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of California residents with assets worth at least $1.1 billion say they’ve collected twice as many signatures as they need to get the measure before the state’s voters on November’s ballot — as a number of bold-faced billionaires have already change their residency. The union leading the effort said they’ve collected nearly 1.6 million signatures and will announce on Monday when they’ll be submitted to election officials for verification. The group needed the signatures of 875,000 registered voters, and must submit them to county elections officials by June 24, to get the controversial proposition on the ballot.” (04/27/26)

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/04/27/billionaires-tax-closer-to-california-ballot-heres-who-has-already-left/

  • India: Modi’s BJP Gains Ground in Upper House After AAP Lawmakers Defect

    Source: US News & World Report

    “Indian Prime Minister ⁠Narendra ⁠Modi’s BJP party strengthened its ⁠position in parliament’s upper house after seven opposition lawmakers joined ​it, a parliamentary list showed on Monday, a shift that could ease the government’s ‌passage of legislation. All seven defectors ‌are from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by one of Modi’s most high‑profile ⁠critics, Arvind ⁠Kejriwal. The party governs the northern state of Punjab and ​previously ran the national capital territory of Delhi. The defections leave the AAP with just three seats in the Rajya Sabha house, while Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party now has 113 members, ​10 short of a simple majority in the 245‑member chamber.” (04/27/26)

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-27/modis-bjp-gains-ground-in-indias-upper-house-after-aap-lawmakers-defect

  • Trump whines at “60 Minutes” for asking about Hilton gunman’s manifesto

    Source: Axios

    “President Trump called CBS’ Norah O’Donnell ‘disgraceful’ during a ’60 Minutes’ interview Sunday, after she raised comments the gunman from the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner allegedly made about him in a manifesto. O’Donnell asked Trump for his reaction to the manifesto, and allegations the suspect appeared to make about him, prompting the president to say: ‘I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. … Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.'” (04/26/26)

    https://archive.is/oPPOa

  • Two former Israeli prime ministers agree to merge parties against Netanyahu

    Source: Seattle Times

    “Two Israeli political heavyweights on Sunday said they would join forces in upcoming elections in a shared effort to unseat longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021. They now plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett. … The two men have ideological differences. Bennett is an Orthodox Jew with hard-line views toward the Palestinians, while Lapid is secular and seen as more moderate. But they enjoyed a close working relationship during their short-lived coalition. Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition that appears to have little in common beyond their shared hostility toward Netanyahu.” (04/26/26)

    https://archive.is/6BLAJ


  • Trump: When the only friends you have left are Bushies and neocons

    Source: Responsible Statecraft
    by Jack Hunter

    “The warmaking president is shedding his base. But the last ones on the MAGA bus may be the first to leap off at any sign of political trouble.” (04/27/26)

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-base-iran-war/

  • When a Chicken Isn’t Just a Chicken

    Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
    by Patrick J Lee

    “A man stands at a farmers market stall. His wife is talking to the farmer. He picks up a chicken. Paper-wrapped, no barcode, a handwritten tag on the twine. He holds it close to read the label and sets it back down fast. The price is an insult. What are these people thinking? A minute later, another man reaches for the same bird, reads the same label, and smiles. What a deal. Same chicken, same label, same words. … Mises was clear that prices don’t emerge from some objective measure of worth. They emerge from subjective valuations, each party to an exchange believing—at the moment of transaction—that what he receives is worth more than what he gives up. The price is not a fact about the chicken. It is the meeting point of two different minds reading the world differently.” (04/27/26)

    https://mises.org/mises-wire/when-chicken-isnt-just-chicken

  • “The Wealth of Nations” and 250 Years of Economists Missing the Point

    Source: The Daily Economy
    by Daniel J Smith & Gabriel F Benzecry

    “From trade policy to public debt, today’s economic debates echo those of 1776. The problem isn’t a lack of knowledge — it’s a failure to teach and apply enduring principles.” 904/27/26)

    https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-wealth-of-nations-and-250-years-of-economists-missing-the-point/

  • Conscription Means Slavery, Not Unity

    Source: Libertarian Institute
    by Brad Pearce

    “While there is a disconnect between the general public and our professional warrior class, and one hears now and again that it would be good for our public to understand military life better, mandatory service would more likely create a false sense of understanding of our professional military that would be more irritating and divisive for everyone. Regarding the premise that mandatory service would build character, this is on its face nonsense.” (04/27/26)

    https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/conscription-means-slavery-not-unity/

  • Is the Lebanon File the Key to Ending the Iran War?

    Source: The American Conservative
    by Ali Rizk

    “One of the important conclusions to draw from the Iran War is how much importance Tehran attaches to Hezbollah, its long-time Lebanese Shiite ally. This is not to be dismissed as business as usual, but rather reflects a major shift whereby supporting Hezbollah has become even more necessary for Iran’s national security.” (04/27/26)

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/is-the-lebanon-file-the-key-to-ending-the-iran-war/

  • Re-Radicalization in an Age of MAGA Remorse

    Source: exile in happy valley
    by Nicky Reid

    “Something very strange is shifting in the darker corners of the internet. Something serpentine slick and black as ink. While Donald Trump moves farther and farther to the right and much of his cultish base mindlessly follows him into the abyss, the farthest of the far-right appear to be turning against Orange-Man-Fash with a vengeance. The brazenly Zionist massacre in Iran was certainly the last straw, but this subterranean sea change was a longtime coming.” (04/26/26)

    https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/04/re-radicalization-in-age-of-maga-remorse.html

  • The Death of Gatekeepers

    Source: Infinite Scroll
    by Jeremiah Johnson

    “In an earlier age, gatekeepers existed to stop morons with puerile or reprehensible views from being heard. I’m not the first (or even the hundredth) person to note that all the gatekeepers are gone and we now live in a permissionless, anything-goes media environment. The death of gatekeepers is why you’re reading this blog on Substack, it’s why I can make my living from writing here and podcasting over at the New Liberal Podcast. There are real benefits to allowing anyone to create and distribute their work without having to break through a stultifying, bureaucratic system. But the death of gatekeepers also has downsides. Today, even the New York Times seems to be chasing clicks any way they can. Invite the hot doofus on your show to say blowing up stuff is cool and shoplifting is good but plastic cups are a moral travesty. Why not? That’ll go viral.” (04/26/26)

    https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/the-death-of-gatekeepers

  • Are we all conspiracy theorists now?

    Source: UnHerd
    by Ryan Zickgraf

    “The gunshots at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner had barely stopped echoing through the DC hotel before the internet had solved the case several times over. The leading theories: it was all staged, or all the Left’s fault. It’s another reminder that we’re in the era of the post-event event: something happens, and then the event is subsumed by its own interpretation.” (04/26/26)

    https://archive.is/DCkow

  • Schools Introduce Hybrid Options As Homeschooling’s Popularity Persists

    Source: Foundation for Economic Education
    by Kerry McDonald

    “On the day the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, I wrote in this space about ‘the world’s homeschooling moment,’ projecting a spike in the number of families who would choose homeschooling and other alternative education options in the wake of school closures. I predicted that while most children would return to their conventional classrooms post-pandemic, some families ‘may start to wonder if homeschooling or other schooling alternatives could be a longer-term option.’ Six years later, it’s clear that many families wondered this. … Hybrid homeschooling programs, along with other creative schooling options, are expanding across the US. These models often provide more curriculum freedom, scheduling flexibility and individualization than traditional schools — public and private.” (04/26/26)

    https://fee.org/articles/schools-introduce-hybrid-options-as-homeschoolings-popularity-persists/

  • A conversation with Dawn Deaner, a public defender running for judge

    Source: The Watch
    by Radley Balko

    “The longtime Nashville public defender discusses what she’s learned from 20 years in the trenches, what needs to change, and what she would do on the bench.” (04/26/26)

    https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-dawn-deaner-a